New Metallica Album Rocks the Charts

Whoever said rock is dead obviously hasn't looked at the Billboard charts lately.

Rock band Metallica's new album, Death Magnetic, debuts at number one this week, reports Reuters.com.

Fans were obviously excited about the band's first album since 2003 as the album sold a whopping 490,000 copies in just a three day sales window, gaining one of the top sales tallies so far this year.

This is even despite Death Magnetic's release date being on a Friday to keep its worldwide release date.

Reportedly, the album has the biggest sales tally Billboard has seen since the Jonas Brothers' A Little Bit Longer sold 525,000 copies five weeks ago with a traditional Tuesday release.

The sales figures already outdo the opening sales of Metallica's 2003 album, St. Anger, that sold 418,000 copies in its opening sales window.

This is the band's fifth time to open at the top of the Billboard charts, and only their 1996 album, Load, has had a bigger opening with its first six days seeing the sale of 680,000 units.

Albums with bigger opening tallies are Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, which sold a million copies, fellow rockers Coldplay's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, with 722,000 copies.